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Since its founding on Sept. 8, 1875, as a German mission-sending society in the small village of Steyl, Holland, the Society of the Divine Word has become one of the largest and fastest growing missionary orders in the Church. From its humble beginnings in what was a small, dilapidated inn called Ronck Villa, with only three candidates for the fledgling order, the Society has grown so that it now has over six-thousand members working in more than sixty-five countries around the world. This growth took place in spite of major wars, the Cold War, and a vocational crisis in many first-world countries. The history of the SVD (also known as the Divine Word Missionaries) is closely tied to the energy and charism of its founder St. Arnold Janssen. Arnold Janssen was a young German diocesan priest who taught high school math and natural science. Besides his work in the sciences, he had a keen interest in the missions. His focus gradually turned from his teaching to the printed word, and he founded a small magazine called the Little Messenger of the Sacred Heart. This magazine promoted interest in the missionary work of the Church. This soon evolved to his greater understanding of the need for a German mission-sending society which would actually prepare young men to serve the Church in areas of the world where the Gospel had yet to be preached. For this dream to become reality, Arnold had to overcome a lack of funds as well as the Kulturkamf, a secular movement which drastically limited the activities of the Church in Germany. Still, his energy and charism succeeded. Three and one-half years after the Society’s founding, Arnold Janssen sent its first two missionaries to China. One, Joseph Freinademetz, SVD, was a young diocesan priest from Tyrol who was later to be canonized a saint. The other, John Baptist Anzer, SVD, would later become a bishop in China.
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The house at Steyl grew quickly, with 60 students by 1879, over 100 in 1881, and over 200 in 1886. Arnold Janssen not only in sent men to the missions but also promoted the cause of mission at home. He initiated a second periodical called the Stadt Gottes [City of God].
To help with the missions and the expanding work of this new order, St. Arnold began to accept the first Brother candidates in May of 1877. The first brothers were sent to China as missionaries in 1883. Realizing the need for missionary Sisters, St. Arnold co-founded the Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSpS) in 1889 and later the Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration (SSpSAP) in 1896. The co-foundresses were Mother Maria Helena Stollenwerk (who was later declared Blessed by Pope John Paul II), and Mother Josefa Hendrina Stenmanns.